NEWS AND OPINION: This is another interesting story about how communities deal with feral cats. It is an issue which constantly challenges the administrators of jurisdiction such as counties and cities and indeed states in America.
In this instance a plan by Matawan, which on my research, is a borough in Monmouth County, New Jersey, United States, to trap feral cats and kill them after a week, if they went unclaimed, has been resolutely rebuffed by residents and animal advocates.
It seems that the policy was trap and kill whereas the community would much prefer trap, neuter and release (TNR).
It also appears that the administrators of Matawan introduced an ordinance which permitted the trapping and ultimately killing of “any cat not claimed within seven days of being trapped” without proper consultation and without the consultation of Monmouth County SPCA who were included in the notice.
Yes, the administrators of Matawan issued a notice which stated: “Free roaming/feral cats that are trapped by Matawan’s Animal Control Officer (ACO) will be impounded. Any cat not claimed within seven days of being trapped will be destroyed by the Monmouth County SPCA.”
So, the administrators involved the SPCA in a very serious way without consulting with them which of course resulted in justifiable criticism by the SPCA who said: “We weren’t even made aware of this, and you’re using our name, and it’s using our name in a disparaging way”.
The Monmouth County SPCA posted their notice on Facebook. They described it as an “outlandish and outrageous campaign created and distributed by the Matawan Animal Welfare Committee”. And: “This campaign was formulated and made public without any knowledge or consent of the Monmouth County SPCA”. On Facebook, the SPCA also said: “We are completely outraged and disheartened that our organization has been attached to this archaic campaign to euthanize feral cats, when there are so many other successful, humane alternatives. The Monmouth County SPCA is the largest TNR organization in NJ, with over 2,700 cats TNR’d last year alone. We will continue to stand behind our mission to protect, care for and advocate for all animals.”
To add to the mess of this decision, the local police force was roped in to distribute notices about the ordinance and campaign. So, I didn’t do them any favours either. Although they made it clear in their own notice that they were only asked to distribute the message about the campaign, and they were not involved in trapping.
They posted: “The Matawan Police Department does not condone or authorise the destruction of animals. The Police Department received notification today that as of this date, ZERO cats have been trapped and the programme has been discontinued.”
It appears that the borough’s business administrator, Scott Carew, is the man behind the campaign. It had been organised by him, the animal control officer and Councilwoman Melanie Wang and a Member of the Animal Welfare Advisory Committee.
Scott Carew apologised for the lack of communication with the SPCA and described it as a mistake. And he made it clear that there was no intention to destroy cats with sounds a bit odd because that is exactly what the ordinance and campaign would have achieved if it had functioned.
Carew said: “That said, since there was the chance that cats would be trapped and brought to the shelter, we wanted to alert cat owners whose cats are allowed to roam outside”. Comment: it looks as though he realised late in the day that the ordinance that he had signed off might have killed people’s companion animals who were allowed outside. This is one of the great negatives about trapping and killing campaigns. They simply cannot function because they lead the organisers into the distinct possibility that they will be prosecuted for criminal damage in destroying someone’s pet.
As it happens, the traps were then removed a week later because no cats were trapped, and the borough’s Animal Welfare Advisory Committee is now working on a new ordinance to address the issue of feral cats. And in a most welcome development, the new ordinance will be focusing on trap-neuter-return rather than trap and kill!
Until the new ordinance has been written into the law, they will not trap any cats unless there is a verifiable complaint about feral cats.
Comment: I think this is a very good example of what the public in America thinks about feral cats and how to deal with them. Many people don’t like feral cats, but the majority do not want to be cruel to them. They accept that feral cats have been put there by the citizens of America ultimately through carelessness and therefore that they should be dealt with humanely and in a decent and respectful way. Trapping and killing is not the answer on a moral basis and in any case, it doesn’t work practically because of the well-known vacuum effect.
Stupid people NEVER remember history and always repeat it. Europe killed their cats during the Dark Ages and were gifted the Black Plague. LOL. The cat Gods got their revenge with rats infested with fleas to kill the humans. Cats help to keep mice and rat populations down. When a predator is removed the breeding numbers of rats and mice go up exponentially. Since cities have very few apex predators like owls and coyotes they should TNR and let the cats do their job of dispatching vermin. Not all cats should be T&N because eventually there will be no cats.
Good comment 👍.